Canada Southern Railway Information

This is a collection of information about or mentioning the Canada Southern Railway.

The Canada Southern mainline ran through southern Ontario from Niagara Falls to Windsor (and Detroit), with branches to Fort Erie, Niagara On The Lake, Chippawa, Leamington, Amherstburg, Courtright, Petrolia and Edy's Mills. (See Canada Southern Places.)

Earlier railroads became part of the Canada Southern, and it in turn became part of others. A variety of names were involved.

The Erie & Ontario Railroad (E&O) was built between Niagara-On-The-Lake and Chippawa in 1854.
The Fort Erie Railway Company (FER) running between Fort Erie and Chippawa was incorporated in 1857.
The FER bought the E&O in 1863, and the merged line was called the Erie & Niagara (E&N).
The Erie & Niagara Extension Railway (E&NER) was incorporated in 1868 to build from Fort Erie through St. Thomas to either Sandwich or Windsor. It was granted all the assets and none of the debts of the E&N.
Depending on the source, either:
- The E&NER was renamed the Canada Southern Railway (CSR) in 1869, or
- The Canada Southern bought the E&N in 1872 (if the E&NER was given the E&N in 1868 then renamed the CSR in 1869, that would involve buying part of itself).
The CSR was allowed to use the 4' 8 1/2" Stephenson Gauge instead of the standard 5' 6" Provincial Gauge, and to include a branch to the St. Clair River.
Some earlier proposals used names like the Niagara and Detroit Rivers Railroad.
It is sometimes referred to as the Southern Counties Railway or just the Southern Railway.
For most of its life the Canada Southern was operated as the Canada Division or Canadian Division by the Michigan Central Railway (MCR), which was owned by the New York Central (NYC). Most equipment used on it was lettered for the NYC but some was CSR or CS and some was MCR.
The NYC later became part of Penn Central (PC), then Conrail (CR).
More recently the Canada Southern was bought by Canadian National Railway (CNR or just CN) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR or CP).
CN and CP have abandoned much of their CaSo or CASO Divisions. (It's speculated they bought it mostly not because they wanted it, but because they didn't want competition.)
A few years ago the CPR bought CN's share of the Detroit River Tunnel (DRT), and now appears likely to replace it.
The Canada Southern also owned part of the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo (TH&B), and owned a subsidiary in the US.
Recently part of the St. Thomas trackage has run trains of the St. Thomas Central, operated by the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society using the St. Thomas Station, now owned by The "On Track" Group, using an ex-ETR (Essex terminal Railway) 0-6-0 #9.

Much of the information here involves one of those other railroads, but only items directly related to the Canada Southern or equipment operated on it will be included.

This information is from complete, and additional information, corrections or updates are welcome.

Contact information is in csbiblio/addresss.htm.

Contents - Canada Southern

Canada Southern Bibliography

Canada Southern Places

Canada Southern Models